How the heck have I never heard that story before? Looking at Peeters' career that 1981-'82 season looked like a difficult one for him. Yet the next year he wins the Vezina, finishes 2nd in Hart voting and the year after that he wins a Canada Cup. Greenberg was always a joker, but I can see him rubbing some the wrong way. Would love to know how much of that is true though.

- Paul Mulvey refusing to fight, resulting in his demotion and the suspension of the coach Don Perry.

- Chris Nilan throwing a puck at Paul Baxter in the penalty box.

- Harry Neale fighting the fan and being the first coach to receive a suspension that carried over to the playoffs.

- Terry O’Reilly punching Andy van Hellemond in the face

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Speaking of interactions with officials: Tom Lysiak got 20 games for tripping a linesman which, speaking as a referee and therefore someone who is hyper-sensitive to official abuse, I always thought was a bit harsh.

I didn't see Craig MacTavish on the list, and not just his coaching stint with the Oilers.

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His coaching stint with the Oilers was remarkably successful. He is the 2nd-best coach in franchise history.

The larger incident you refer to (from Boston) was obviously a tragedy and didn't do anyone any favors, but I don't really see that kind of one-off incident as something that reflects badly on the NHL. MacTavish did a(n unintentional) crime, did his time, expressed sincere regret, and has made efforts (financial, and probably otherwise) to compensate the family of the victim.

Whether this actually happened or not, Greenberg was a journalist, right? But this alleged incident (I've heard/read about it sometime before, most likely on this board) is giving me strong hazing vibes. Also reminds me of the hazing thread regarding Canadian junior hockey that appeared on the mainboard not long ago. We have a hazing culture here in my home country too, mostly regarding new students at the gymnasium school level (when students are 16 years old) and/or in junior sports teams, but it's of course hard to get a good grip of the exact scope and type of hazing going on, because it's hardly reported on a lot by the perpetrators and/or the victims, and especially not if it goes a bit out of hand, I would guess.

If you google hazing though (through the Swedish word) you get a lot of pics of half naked students doing different kinds of semi-humiliating outdoor activities. I have no personal experience of it though because I'm a college dropout like my idol Kanye West. (that last part of the sentence is a joke)

The worst public cases of hazing we've had here in Sweden during the last couple of years I can think of, i.e. cases reported on going to court, is 1) students at an upper class private school burning another student with a heated clothes iron device, and 2) players at an AIK Solna football/soccer junior club shoving clothes hangers up the rectums of other younger players of the same club (which is very close in nature to the alleged Peeters incident). I also remember an incident a couple of years ago where a girl claimed in a newspaper she almost died of alcohol poisoning after having been forced drinking too much at a school hazing ritual.

During the court proceedings (or during the police interrogation) regarding the AIK Solna junior football/soccer club incident, I remember one of the perpetrators said something along the line that he didn't imagining it being illegal (!) (or that big of a deal) since he (and other players his age, I believe he meant the other perpetrators) had experienced it himself/themselves when they were new players at the club. ehhedler himself have a hard time imagining why you would like to do such a thing to another person regardless of any personal experience of it as a recipient, but yeah, I guess sometimes team/school/societal cultures and group dynamics sucks pretty hard.

What I would like to say on a more general level is that incidents similar to the alleged Peeters incident most certainly have happened. Sometimes reality even surpasses fiction.

1993- Gil Stein is inducted into the HHOF. Or so it seemed. After an investigation by two attorneys hired by Bettman, it was discovered that Stein had rigged the system by removing several directors of the HHOF board. When the charges came to light, Stein withdrew his name, but denied the charges.

In 2017, on the eve of Ottawa's first outdoor game, the NHL 100 Classic between the Ottawa Senators and Montreal Canadiens, Senators owner Eugene Melnyk decided to use the occasion to highlight the possibility of moving the team if fan attendance didn't increase.

Speaking after the Senators Alumni Classic at the Canada 150 rink on Parliament Hill on Friday night, and on the eve of Saturday’s NHL 100 Classic between the Sens and the Montreal Canadiens, Melnyk said he has no intention of selling the franchise. But he didn’t rule out moving it.

“If we start not seeing crowds showing up, well yes, but for now, we’re on the cusp of doing okay,” Melnyk said.

Ottawa (as well as Montreal fans) fans, having dropped hundreds of dollars on tickets for the event, were not pleased by the implication given the timing, leading to the first instance of the now prevalent #MelnykOut hashtag.

“I’m not going to blow a lifetime of working hard to support a hockey team. It’s not gonna happen,” Melnyk told reporters Friday before a Senators alumni game on an outdoor rink at Parliament Hill.

“The bigger question is whether I’m prepared to blow all that money I made over many years in a different industry in a different country. How long can you underwrite a team?”

That did not go over well among the team’s fan base and drew some heat on social media.

“I read (the comments),” Bettman said in an interview with Postmedia 90 minutes before the puck dropped on the NHL100 Classic Saturday night. “I haven’t even spoken to (Melnyk), but he didn’t say he was moving the franchise.

“And (you) can’t move the franchise unless you go through the league process and get board of governor approval. So, I just think this is much ado about nothing.”

How the heck have I never heard that story before? Looking at Peeters' career that 1981-'82 season looked like a difficult one for him. Yet the next year he wins the Vezina, finishes 2nd in Hart voting and the year after that he wins a Canada Cup. Greenberg was always a joker, but I can see him rubbing some the wrong way. Would love to know how much of that is true though.

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After Peeters had a bad night in goal, Greenberg apparently roasted him in the press the next day, nicknaming him "Light Bulb." An incensed Peeters & a couple of accomplices held Greenberg down in the dressing room & shoved a light bulb up his ass. Greenberg never pressed charges, the embarrassing incident was downplayed as much as possible, but Peeters was shipped out to Boston. Imagine if something like this happened now: Peeters would be roasted on social media, be charged with assault & probably face a lifetime ban by the NHL. Instead, he was traded & continued to spend the rest of his career in the hockey biz.

The rumors started after Merlino was spotted sitting in Lindros complimentary seats during a game. Lindros denied knowing Merlino, while Merlino stated ,“I met the guy three times in my whole life.” After a few weeks of hoopla, the rumors went away.

Years later, a former girlfriend of a high ranking Philly mobster stated that Lindros did date one of Merlino's sisters a few times. The former girlfriend went on to add that Lindros and Merlino not only knew each other, but were "hanging out" with each other quite a bit during this time.

He says he’s one of the biggest hockey fans in the city.
He says he thinks Eric Lindros is “the best player in the NHL.”
And, in case anybody cares, he says he lost plenty betting on the Flyers during their dismal playoff run this year.
Joey Merlino, Passyunk Avenue coffee-shop impresario and reputed mob underboss, spoke out yesterday after two days of rumor and innuendo, fanned in large part by sports-talk radio station WIP (610-AM), about an alleged “relationship” between himself and the Flyers’ captain.
“It’s a crime,” said Merlino, who knows a little bit about that topic. “I met the guy three times in my whole life.”
What’s more, Merlino said, reports that Lindros was a friend of either of his sisters, Maria, 36, or Natalie, 19, are totally off base.
“He’s never met my sisters.”
Merlino, 33, said he was disgusted by the hype and frenzy over what he said was a non-story.
“I just want to clear the kid,” he said. “He did nothing wrong. Look, they’re gonna say and write whatever they want about me, but it’s a crime what they’re doin’ to him. . . . He makes $7 million a year. He don’t need this. . . .”
The Flyers, for their part, issued a statement saying they “will not respond to ridiculous, unfounded charges and innuendo.”​